Jer’s Continuing Adventures…

What a great turn out this year! Can you believe 28 riders showed up? Everyone seemed stoked on it and there were some good times. A couple of crashes with no injuries kept it exciting for the crowds. Strangely, the whole field was slower this year than last year. Maybe the trail was different for some reason.

It got interesting as someone had to run the shop, so I did the first run, jumped in my truck and drove to the shop so Irah could come up to race. Then we swapped again so I could do the final run. A little slower than my 1:45 last year, I came in at 1:53. Guess I have to practice more this fall and next spring!

Anywho, on to the results!

Men’s Category:

First Place
Tom Anderson
1:41.16

Second Place
Kees Vandervalk Jr
1:41.56
(2009 result : First Place – 1:33)

Third Place
Sasha LeBaron
1:42.18
(2009 result : Second Place – 1:36)

Fourth Place
Irah Vet
1:43.72

Fifth Place
Miles Bagger
1:43.90

Women’s Category

First Place
Carmel Ecker
1:57.03

Second Place
Christine Jensen
2:06.53

Third Place
Amy LeBaron
2:09.66

The complete results are here:
results2010

Honorable Mention goes to Jaden Legante for being the Youngest rider at 6 years old!

Thanks so much to the timing volunteers and all the participants. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Looking forward to next year! Same day, same time, same place. See you there!

Super strong wind today! There were at least five trees blown down on the road and 4 broken power lines. And that was just on Hornby. I hear Denman Island, Union Bay and the rest of the Comox Valley is out of power. I spent the morning with the rest of the fire department making sure no one got hit by falling trees, or zapped by downed power lines. Being out of power I’ve been at the fire hall for the warmth and Internet. Aren’t generators a wonderful thing?
Steve and Carrie were up for the weekend, but decided that no power and high winds was a cue to head back down island. See you next weekend, and hope the weather’s better!

Yummmmmmm…

I’ve been inspired over the last few days to put some extra effort in to my food, even if I’m cooking for meselfs. Prawns and Scallops sauteed with dried Tomatoes and Chilies over Pesto Pasta one night, Ground Venison cooked with fried egg and Garlic over toast the next. And tonight, Doug and Rachelle brought a fantastic Wild Mushroom Soup to go with the Venison Sausage over Risotto I prepared. So good! And thanks to them, we finished off with fresh grapes and some killer Christmas Fruit Cake. I’m practically in a food coma. It doesn’t hurt having the very tasty cider that Steve & Carrie made. Thanks Steve! It is so much fun and surprisingly easy to make good food with the right ingredients. What’s next?

In other news, my Dad and I have started working on databasing his artwork. It’s my first real experience of studio photography and I think I like it. Unlike shooting nature where the challenge is composition and light, studio shooting is more about getting the technical stuff right. With the right light set up and everything in fixed positions, I can concentrate on learning the subtle differences between f11 and f13 at .5 second. Fascinating stuff! And I get to see many years of my Dad’s work and hear him talk about what they mean to him. I’m looking forward to more tomorrow.

What’s up with that? Sounds crazy, I know, and it tastes damn good! When I invited Dave and asked for suggestions for cooking the venison, he came up with pine needles in the marinade. Sweet! Let’s do it! Dave came over early and we marinaded the steaks with fir needles (no pine trees nearby) and dried cranberries. After Dan and Tereza showed up we got the steaks cooking. So yum! I’m definitely doing that one again! And the lemon meringue pie for dessert was a killer. A few beers, some very engaging conversation and I’d call that a success. I’m liking this dinners with friends thing. Got to do more of it!

Looking forward to going for a ride with Steve tomorrow. We’ll ride the sections of trail I cleared today and see how they are. Stoked! I haven’t gone for a ride with Steve for over a month. We’ll see how the young feller holds up. Just kidding, he can ride the legs off me on a good day.

With a belly full of beer, good food and sweets, it’s time to say good night. Sweet dreams and bright days, y’all!

After a slow start (might have had something to do with the moonshine…) we got packed up and said goodbye to the two brothers. Really nice fella’s to host us in their orchard.

After driving up out of the canyon we stopped in a local village at the top to get in one more ride. The day was super hot so we made sure to take lots of water before heading out. Another stunning three hour ride along the canyon rim. Ray stopped part way to get directions from some local kids, and they decided to follow us for a while. They are super agile around the huge cliffs we were riding next to. Ray even climbed out on to a tree to hang his bike for another promo shot. On the way back we basically went bushwhacking, as this was an area Ray wanted to explore for future trips. Found some really interesting lines! Unfortunately Gid found something sharp with his tire too. As we were nearing the end we just pumped it up, rode as far as we could, and pumped it up some more. All the while being paced by little kids on horseback. Cheeky monkeys!

Ahhhh, I have a bit of room finally! My trailer is in place and most of my crap (why do I have so much s**t?) is moved in. This will be the first night in my new pad. Big thanks to Steve for moving it with his truck. It was a relatively small truck to move such a big trailer.

What about this trailer, I hear you saying. Well, I purchased George Stonehouse’s 5th wheel trailer. He’d lived in it for 4 years and before finishing his house. The unit is a 1992 Skyline Nomad 40′, 3 axle, 2 slide-out 5th wheel. With the slide-outs open the interioir has room for a couch, laz-e-boy, kitchen table and real chairs. As well as lots of floor space. At one end of the living room is the kitchen area with a full size counter and lots of storage/shelf space. Going the other way are steps up past the full size shower (I fit!) and toilet, to the bedroom with a big closet and night tables. Frankly I’m still a bit stunned that I have actual room and it’s actually mine.

Once I get it set up I will invite folks over for dinners or afternoon cervezas. I will post some pics soon. Stoked!

Awesome crew came out on Sunday for the big push on Slickrock. We had a dozen all told, and Betty even made an appearance. With such stoked folks we finished the whole thing in 5 hours. Some of the lads were in for the heavy lifting, some were more about the finishing work, everybody had something to do. Even the kids, Arly and Ruby, helped by collecting pin flags. I was stoked to see so many people thought the trails are worth a few hours of their time, and I am looking forward to many more successful work days.

The Dallaway brothers are up this weekend and I invited them over for eats and beers. We munched for a bit and drank some of my home brew before starting a couple bike movies.

First we watched “Joe Kid on a Stingray“, a film I highly recommend. It is a documentary of the history of BMX. Joe Kid was inspired by the film “Lords of Dogtown” which is about the beginnings of skateboarding.

Next up was Ryan Leech‘s “Crux” which once again demonstrates that he is an alien from a planet with high gravity. The boy can float over almost everything. He even rides a 10′ chain. Yep, from one end to the other. Talk about inspiring!

Parker puts on a great spread! Buffalo Chicken Wings, Chorizo Sausages and Bratwurst, French Fries and lots of Blender Drinks! What a feast! And I made $5 in a bet with Jethro! Better pay up, buddy..

I have to admit that a Super Bowl Party doesn’t sound appealing to me, but it’s such a good time the way it happens at the Fire Hall that I’m looking forward to the next one. This one started at about 1400 after I came out of the woods from marking the potential trail diversion on Slickrock with Yana, Doug and Steve. I invited Steve to come to the party and meet everybody. And while he was there we took his bubble hockey game out and loaded it in to his truck. He had bought it from the Fire Department. After that excitement we settled in for some earnest eating and drinking. The game was even exciting as the score seesawed back and forth up to the last 30 seconds with the underdogs, the New York Giants, taking the win. Woohoo!

Blogs are easy to set up and not so easy to remember to update.

So what’s been happening? Well, I’m staying away from meat and dairy again, in a low key way. I know if I announce it I will get some comments from the peanut gallery. So we’ll keep this on the QT for now. And I’m doing yoga in the mornings again. A very basic 5 reps of the Sun Salute for now. As I limber up I’ll increase the positions.

Steve Dallaway was meant to come up this morning to do some trail work and go for a ride. Unfortunately he got to Gravely Bay on Denman at 0930 in time to be told that the ferries had stopped running due to the storm. Back down to Cobble Hill he went. Heavy winds! Being up on the trails in high wind is not so smart so we likely wouldn’t have gotten out anyways. Next time.

I’m looking forward to the Christmas Dinner at the Fire Hall this Thursday. I’m making Schwartzies Potatoes. Yum! And if you don’t know what they are, ask Carrie or Robin. Our beer will be ready for the dinner too, and I can almost taste it.

Sweet Dreams